Donate Us

Help us keep this free site alive with a small contribution from you. Select an amount below.

Sunday, February 28, 2021

Cartoon of the Day: Raising a child correctly




02/28 Links: When Israel Hits Iran, Politicians and the Media Will Hit Israel’s Supporters; Tobin: Who’s Legitimizing the Vaccine Blood Libel?; Iran behind attack on Israeli-owned ship, Kochavi confirms

From Ian:

When Israel Hits Iran, Politicians and the Media Will Hit Israel’s Supporters
Leading US and European news outlets repeatedly inverted aggressor and defender, and Palestinian civilian and military casualties, in coverage of Israel’s 2014 fight against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. They chronically overstated Palestinian non-combatant dead and under-reported attacks and attempted strikes against Israeli civilians.

Last year and even more recently, news media coverage of Israel’s comparatively successful COVID-19 vaccination program periodically sabotaged itself with false claims that Israel denied the coronavirus vaccine to Palestinian Arabs.

Reporting and commentary on a renewed Hezbollah-Israel conflagration might well emphasize a Lebanon in ruins, parents weeping over dead children while downplaying Iranian-funded and directed Hezbollah aggression. Neither the Biden administration nor the media are likely to have Israel’s back.

The White House has signaled to the mullahs in Tehran that it wants to talk. It resumed funding the Palestinian Authority despite the PA’s incessant anti-Israel incitement and subsidies to the families of terrorist “martyrs.” In the month after his inauguration, President Joe Biden called virtually every other US ally plus Russia and China before getting to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. A Washington Post editorial approved the snub.

If open Israeli-Iranian warfare erupts, will Israel’s supporters be ready to wage the accompanying psychological war? Will they effectively counter the likely increase in anti-Zionist and antisemitic atmospherics, and assaults sparked by Middle East combat?

Preparations should be underway.
J.E. Dyer: U.S. and Iran: The view from inside the OODA loop
No one outside the Western Left takes the bombing of Syria with 7 JDAMs seriously. If we are to play an effective hand, it will have to be the American way: in the open, or at least face-to-face, not skulking around making Delphic communications with 500-lb bombs.

The compromised nature of the messaging is evident in this simple reality: the message from those bombs wasn’t meant for Iran. It was meant for the American public. Iran knows that, the whole region knows it, the Europeans, Putin, Xi – they all know it.

And the American public does too, if it pauses to think for 15 seconds.

But will this be when the Iranian people save the day, most especially for themselves, by standing up inside the OODA loop and blowing it to smithereens? I know no better than anyone else, and would not raise false hopes. But surely there will be help for them. Maybe Iran’s regime has not yet recovered enough from Trump’s tightened sanctions to brutally “stabilize” its deteriorating domestic conditions.

This may go in fits and starts, and it may seem impossible now. But no one would have predicted success for the Abraham Accords a year ago either. And Washington isn’t the only place succor can come from.

One of our best old hands on Iran, Michael Ledeen, likes to say, “Faster, please!” Fast or slow, the current drama isn’t an overture; it’s more like being catapulted into Act III. God be with the people of Iran, as indeed with all the peoples of this most ancient of regions.
Geral Steinberg: German ‘cultural leaders’ and the anti-anti boycott campaign - comment
AT THE SAME time, the German cultural activists also completely and perhaps willfully ignore the dangerous reality of antisemitism, including the incitement against Israel and Israelis, including boycotts based on false accusations of war crimes and racism. This incitement is directly related to the violent attacks against synagogues, museums and individual Jews. Instead of playing a positive role in combating this evil, the participants sought to undermine the most effective mechanisms available, in some cases accompanied by shameful personal attacks on Felix Klein, the official responsible for combating antisemitism. The activists sought to undermine Klein and others while Germany held the rotating presidency of the IHRA.

In media portrayals, they appear as well-intentioned innocents whose motivations are strictly artistic, unfairly caught-up in distant wars, and suffering terribly from criticism for inviting BDS activists to participate in their events. (Many of the incidents took place before the 2019 Bundestag resolution and the alleged “misuse of allegations of antisemitism” that followed.) One prominent activist in the Weltoffenheit campaign told journalists that even after the Bundestag resolution, she still did not know anything about BDS. (“Ich weiß auch heute noch nicht ganz genau, was der BDS ist.”) Given the extensive presence of the anti-Israel boycott in Germany, this claim strains credibility.

The distortions of the Weltoffenheit text strongly echo the campaigns, launched around the same time (at the end of 2020), by powerful non-governmental organizations that are at the forefront of the anti-Israel movement, under the banner of moral agendas. Human Rights Watch is one of the most active in promoting BDS, and in campaigning against the IHRA definition, including efforts to prevent any discussion of the antisemitic aspects of the BDS movement. The US-based HRW organization is very active and has a strong following among the left-wing German elite. In parallel, numerous Palestinian and left-wing Israeli political NGOs blasted out the same message at every opportunity. Their objective is to deflect the growing international consensus that accepts the IHRA document as a guideline for assessing antisemitic behavior. The Weltoffenheit campaign is well-financed, in order to gain wide publicity and impact, although the list of funders, as is often the case, particularly in Germany, is not transparent. It is possible that the money came from NGOs such as HRW, or from governmental programs and political foundations. Whatever the source, the public relations campaign was highly professional, gaining entirely favorable publicity in many German, European, Israeli and American media platforms, including The New York Times.

In summary, behind “Initiative GG 5.3 Weltoffenheit” are many questions, waiting to be examined by an investigative journalist or academic researcher able to look beyond the public relations blitz and high-sounding rhetoric.
Jonathan Tobin: Who’s Legitimizing the Vaccine Blood Libel?
Why then is this false narrative being spread about so blithely?

The answer is clear. Though the vaccine argument lacks credibility, it fits in nicely with a narrative that not only smears Israel as a uniquely awful human-rights violator: By putting forward the claim that it is denying life-saving medicine to non-Jews, it buttresses other longstanding claims that Israel is also a uniquely illegitimate state.

That brings us back to where “SNL” and Che entered the argument. The reason why we’re having this discussion is neither a misunderstanding nor a mistake rooted in ignorance. The obsessive desire to associate Israel with every conceivable slander, including those that reinforce old hateful lies that have led to bloodshed, is based in the antisemitic premise that the Jewish state — alone of all nations in the world — has no right to exist. That is why so-called human rights groups focus on the only democracy in the Middle East rather than the tyrannies that surround it.

Israel isn’t perfect. Nor are its leaders incapable of bad behavior. But the willingness of so many to say hateful things about it is unrelated to its actual faults. They smear Israel because of what it is — the one Jewish state on the planet — not because of what it does. Those who try to justify the “SNL” smear are giving aid and comfort to those who wish to deny to the Jews that which they would never think of denying to any other people. Whether you cloak that in lame humor or high-flown rhetoric about human rights, it amounts to the same thing: antisemitism.


Coronavirus vaccination: Over 8 million doses administered in Israel
More than eight million doses of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine have been administered in Israel, Health Minister Yuli Edelstein said on Sunday morning.

It takes two doses to be fully vaccinated. Of the eight million doses, more than three million were second doses, meaning more than three million Israelis are fully vaccinated.

Specifically, 4,687,114 have had at least one jab and 3,320,355 have had their second dose, too.

At the same time, Maccabi Health Services announced that it reached the Health Ministry’s goal of inoculating 90% of clients 50 years old and older. It is the first fund to reach this target.

The fund’s general immunization rate is 74% of its members over the age of 16, it said.

The data also showed that Maccabi is leading by a large margin with 625 of clients ages 16-18 who have been inoculated.
Tel Aviv Municipality holds concert for vaccinated seniors
The Tel Aviv Municipality held an outdoor concert for vaccinated seniors on Wednesday, as the cultural sector begins to return to following Israel's robust vaccination campaign amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Seasoned Israeli pop-rock singer Nurit Galron performed in front of the crowd of 300 vaccinated seniors at the Wohl Amphitheater.

Ticket sales were organized through the municipality's Digi+ program, which offers benefits for retired and senior residents of Tel Aviv. While the cultural sector is on its return, Wednesday's concert and many foreseeable events will be open air events and limited to advanced sales.

For entrance the seniors were also requested to present their green passports, as part of the new program for vaccinated Israelis, hoping to open back up Israel's economy and return back to life.

"There is great excitement for the return of art and culture to activity, and especially in the first Hebrew city – where culture has always been our lifeblood," said Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai.
Israel: Electronic Bracelets to Enforce Quarantine

BBC R4 exploits ‘green passport’ reports for gratuitous linkage
Previously we saw how the BBC News website and BBC World Service radio recently promoted redundant linkage to the topic of vaccinations for Palestinians who are not Israeli citizens in reports ostensibly about Israel’s vaccination drive, despite the corporation having acknowledged on February 9th that “the Oslo Accords give the Palestinian Authority oversight of public health”.

The same practice was in evidence on BBC Radio 4 last week in two reports about ‘green passports’.

On February 24th listeners to ‘World at One’ heard an interview with a representative from Israel’s ministry of tourism (from 24:11 here) which was introduced by presenter Sarah Montague as follows: [emphasis in italics in the original, emphasis in bold added]

Montague: “Meanwhile, in Israel approximately 30% of the population has been vaccinated. In the occupied territories the rate among Palestinians is far lower, with both sides saying the other bears responsibility for vaccinating the population. Israel is operating a green and purple badge scheme which means some citizens are able to go on holiday within the country and there are plans for travel corridors with Greece and Cyprus.”
A political misfire from King Abdullah following Gantz meeting - analysis
Shortly before an election, Jordan’s King Abdullah hosted an Israeli opponent of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu whose popularity was waning.

That could be a headline from October 2018 or from Sunday.

About two and a half years ago, Abdullah invited Zionist Union leader Avi Gabbay to meet in his palace. At the time, tensions in Netanyahu’s coalition meant there were rumblings about an early election, though one was not called for two more months. Gabbay, while the head of the largest opposition party in the 20th Knesset, was projected to lead a much smaller faction in the next one.

“Abdullah hosted Gabbay despite polls indicating that the Zionist Union would win only 12 seats in the next election,” The Jerusalem Post reported at the time, and a “Midgam poll broadcast on Channel 2 found that only 4% of Israelis believe he is the most fit candidate to be prime minister.”

Reading the headlines on Sunday morning, one can’t help but feel déjà vu. King Abdullah recently held a secret meeting with Defense Minister Benny Gantz, as first reported in Yediot Aharonot and verified by the Post.
Former US secretary of state Pompeo: Many Saudis want normalization with Israel
Former US secretary of state Mike Pompeo has said “many” people in Saudi Arabia want normalized relations with Israel, voicing hope the kingdom will join the Abraham Accords agreed on during Donald Trump’s administration.

Pompeo, who served as Trump’s CIA director and top diplomat, made the comments in a recorded video address to the Combat Anti-Semitism Movement, which will give him its inaugural Global Leadership Award on Monday.

Under the Abraham Accords brokered by Trump last year, four majority Arab states — the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan — agreed to establish ties with Israel.

The Israeli press was rife with speculation about other Arab nations interested in joining the pact, with powerhouse Saudi Arabia widely regarded as a top prize for the Jewish state.

“Predicting the future has proven a struggle for me,” Pompeo said in remarks shared with AFP, adding that he thinks “many more” countries will seek ties with Israel.

“I hope that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia can find its way to join the Abraham Accords. I know that many inside that country want that to take place,” he said.
Biden Says Saudi Announcement to Come Monday; White House Plays Down New Steps
President Joe Biden on Saturday said his administration would make an announcement on Saudi Arabia on Monday, following a US intelligence report that found Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had approved the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

The Biden administration has faced some criticism, notably an editorial in the Washington Post, that the president should have been tougher on the crown prince, who was not sanctioned despite being blamed for approving Khashoggi’s murder.

Asked about punishing the crown prince, Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, who is also known as MbS, Biden said: “There will be an announcement on Monday as to what we are going to be doing with Saudi Arabia generally.”

Biden did not provide details.

But a White House official suggested no new significant steps were expected.

“The administration took a wide range of new actions on Friday. The president is referring to the fact that on Monday, the State Department will provide more details and elaborate on those announcements, not new announcements,” the official said.
In Iraq, Pope to Visit Mosul Churches Desecrated by Islamic State
In Mosul, adjacent to the Biblical city of Nineveh, four churches representing different denominations occupy a small square surrounded by low-rise houses, testament to the role Iraq’s once flourishing Christian community played.

Today, all four churches are either damaged or destroyed after Islamic State militants occupied the city from 2014-2017, desecrated many of the buildings and used them to run its administration, including as a jail and a court.

Air strikes as Iraqi forces tried to dislodge the extremist group in fierce fighting did the rest. Those walls still standing are scarred with bullet and shrapnel holes.

“It used to be a bit like the Jerusalem of the Nineveh plains,” said Mosul and Akra’s Chaldean Archbishop Najeeb Michaeel of “Church Square,” the name given to the site that Pope Francis will visit on March 7 during his historic trip to Iraq.

Michaeel fondly recalled how, before the US invasion in 2003, Iraqi Christians from different denominations would attend each other’s services on religious festivals.

Those days are gone. Today just one of Mosul’s surviving churches offers a weekly Sunday service to a Christian population that has dwindled to just a few dozen families from about 50,000 people.

Tolerated by former President Saddam Hussein but persecuted by al Qaeda and then Islamic State, Iraq’s Christians number around 300,000, one fifth of the total before 2003.
Iran behind attack on Israeli-owned ship, Kochavi confirms
After Defense Minister Benny Gantz suggested the Iranians were responsible for the missile attack on an Israeli-owned cargo ship last week, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Aviv Kochavi on Sunday said the incident was a reminder that Iran “spreads terrorism and is conducting terrorist activities against civilian targets.”

“We were reminded that Iran is not just a nuclear threat,” he said at the 8200 Intelligence Unit’s change-of-command ceremony.

“The State of Israel is constantly dealing with multiple threats,” Kochavi said. “All of our fronts are active, and all these fronts require updated, real-time intelligence [to defend] against a rocket [attack], against infiltrations, against cyberattacks, against [threats to] ships and threats on fighter jets.”

“The intelligence is intertwined on all these fronts, and we can’t do without it,” he said.

“This is the place to reiterate that the IDF is acting and will act against all threats in the closer circle and in the wider circle,” Kochavi said. “And as always, it will do it via the high-quality intelligence that the Intelligence Directorate provides.”

During the ceremony, Unit 8200 received an award for outstanding achievements.
Former Israeli ambassador to UN: 'Iran will pay heavy price'
"We will not be silent. The Iranians will pay a heavy price for any aggression against the Israeli state," former Israeli ambassador to the UN Danny Danon said, referring to the damage caused to an Israeli-owned cargo vessel that was damaged by a mysterious explosion in the Gulf of Oman.

Defense Minister Benny Gantz has said that Iran is the main suspect behind the attack, which took place overnight Thursday. Danon's comments were quoted by the Hebrew website Ynet.

The ship Helios Ray, usually used as a vehicle carrier, was sailing to Singapore from Saudi Arabia when the explosion occurred. It was then diverted to a port in Dubai to assess the damage.

Officials from the security firm Dryad that was securing the area have also said that they are examining the possibility that the Iranian military was involved.

“Whilst details regarding the incident remain unclear, it remains a realistic possibility that the event was the result of asymmetric activity by Iranian military,” Dryad said in a report.
Israel designates PFLP international branch as a terrorist organization
As part of the campaign against the Palestinian Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and its global organizational infrastructure, Defense Minister Benny Gantz has signed an order designating the Samidoun organization, which acts abroad on the group’s behalf, as a terrorist organization.

The Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity organization, also known as Samidoun (Arabic for holding ground), was designated as a terrorist organization because it is part of the PFLP. It was founded by members of the front in 2012.

The designation was made following the recommendation of the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) and the National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing, the Defense Ministry said in a press release.

Representatives of the organization are active in many countries in Europe and North America, led by Khaled Barakat, who is part of the leadership of the PFLP abroad, it said.

Barakat is involved with establishing terrorist cells in the West Bank and abroad, the Defense Ministry said. The formal goal of Samidoun is to help Palestinian prisoners secure their release from prison, it said, adding that in practice, it serves as a front for the PFLP abroad.
IDF nabs suspect in attempted West Bank stabbing
The Israel Defense Forces on Sunday announced the arrest of a suspect in an attempted stabbing attack last week in the northern West Bank.

No one was injured in the attempted stabbing, which was reported by an Israeli man who said he was attacked at the Yitzhar Junction.

“In recent days a manhunt has been conducted after the terrorist and a little while ago the suspect was arrest by IDF troops near Salim village,” a statement from the military said.

No information was provided on the suspect’s identity.

In surveillance camera footage of the incident that was shared on social media, a Palestinian man can be seen holding an unidentified object in his hand, as he tries to stab the Israeli man, Binyamin Cohen from the Beit El settlement.

Cohen could be seen fighting back, kicking the man and screaming, before running away and calling the police.
PMW: Libel: Israel's newest “war crime” is “killing” Palestinian prisoners with the Coronavirus – official PA daily op-ed
The Coronavirus has served as a breath of fresh air for the PA libel that Israel ‎medically neglects and abuses Palestinian terrorist prisoners. Whereas COVID-19 ‎has provided new raw material for libels against Israel in general, Palestinian Media ‎Watch has exposed that the PA in particular has exploited the pandemic to repeat ‎the libel about Israeli abuse of imprisoned Palestinian terrorists. ‎

It really doesn’t matter what Israel does in terms of dealing with the Coronavirus in ‎connection with the terrorist prisoners. If Israel doesn’t vaccinate the prisoners, the ‎PA criticizes it for “neglecting” the Palestinian prisoners and even “deliberately ‎exposing” them to the virus. If Israel does vaccinate them, the PA claims Israel is ‎using them as guinea pigs and conducting medical experiments on them. Israel is ‎damned if it does and damned if it doesn’t. ‎

During the pandemic the PA has
- alleged that Israel deliberately exposed the terrorist prisoners to the ‎Coronavirus.
- complained that Israel wasn’t protecting the terrorist prisoners from the ‎virus.
- claimed Israel was using the virus as “a tool of abuse” to further harm ‎the terrorist prisoners by isolating them (when the Prison Service was ‎actually following the Coronavirus guidelines for isolation to protect them ‎from further spreading of the disease.)
- demanded Israel vaccinate the prisoners but opposed Israel's vaccinations ‎unless Israel agreed to international supervision, claiming Israel might ‎otherwise use the prisoners for “medical experiments.” ‎

Some of these libels were printed by the official PA daily. The paper’s regular ‎columnist Muwaffaq Matar - who is also a member of Fatah’s Revolutionary Council ‎member – claimed Israel is using the Coronavirus as “a new weapon” with which it ‎carries out a “war crime” - an alleged “plan of tormenting and killing the prisoners ‎slowly and indirectly”:‎
Israel authorizes plan to vaccinate over 120,000 Palestinian workers
The Israeli government on Sunday approved a plan to vaccinate over 120,000 Palestinians who are legally employed in Israeli communities, Israel’s military liaison to the Palestinians said in a statement.

The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, which administers Palestinian civilian affairs, announced that it would roll out an immunization campaign at border crossings and industrial zones across the West Bank. According to COGAT, Israeli healthcare workers will administer the shots.

“As part of the fight against the spread of the coronavirus and in accordance with the recommendation of COGAT and the Ministry of Health, the government approved a vaccination campaign for Palestinian workers with work permits in Israel and Israeli settlements,” COGAT said in a statement.

Around 87,000 Palestinians hold work permits in Israel, and an additional 35,000 work in Israeli settlements, according to Defense Ministry figures.
China and India to send vaccines to Palestinians
China and India plan to send COVID-19 vaccines to the West Bank and Gaza amid calls for donor countries to ensure pandemic protection for the Palestinians.

"China has decided to donate COVID-19 vaccines to Palestine," the country's Ambassador Geng Shuang told the United Nations Security Council during its monthly meeting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"These vaccines will be delivered to Palestine real soon. We will continue to do our best to help Palestine fight the pandemic," Geng said. He noted that China had already sent medical supplies to 141 health centers for Palestinian refugees run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency in the West Bank, Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan.

India's Deputy Representative Nagaraj Naidu said that his county would "facilitate an early supply of vaccines to Palestine."

He added that, "equity in access to vaccines across the world is important for mitigating the impact of the pandemic."


Iranian Chess Players Join Global Competitors in Israeli-Led Virtual Tournament
Iranian chess players participated for the first time in a virtual tournament on Monday that was part of an Israeli solidarity initiative.

From beginners to grandmasters, a total of 438 chess players from more than 40 countries, including Ecuador, Chile, Indonesia, Iraq, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Sudan and Yemen, took part in the Chess4Solidarity project sponsored by the Abu Gosh council, the Chess4All organization, the French city of Sarcelles and the Beit Esther association.

The event promoted the alliance of sister cities Sarcelles and Abu Gosh.

The Chess4Solidarity initiative aims to strengthen ties between people, countries and nations.

Azerbaijani chess Grandmaster Vugar Rasulov won first place in the tournament, followed by international Grandmaster David Gorodetsky in second and Aristabek Orzeev from Kazakhstan in third place. A total of 1,000 euros ($1,218) in prize money was awarded in Monday’s tournament, according to The Jerusalem Post.

Thousands have chess players from throughout the world have taken part in Chess4Solidarity’s past events, which have included tournaments with Bhutan, Morocco, Sudan and New Zealand.
'Antisemitism isn't funny': Protest against SNL Israel joke outside NBC
A crowd gathered outside NBC headquarters in New York City on Saturday night to protest against a joke about vaccinations in Israel from last week's episode of Saturday Night Live, shortly before this week's episode aired, according to the New York Post.

Dov Hikind, a former NY state assemblyman and founder of Americans Against Antisemitism, organized the protest, stressing in an invite to the event on social media that NBC needs to be told that "antisemitism is NEVER funny."

Protesters chanted "Shame on NBC!" and "Antisemitism is not funny!" outside the network's West 49th Street entrance, according to the newspaper.

Activists and organizations have expressed outrage at the joke by comedian Michael Che, who stated during the Weekend Update segment of SNL that "Israel is reporting that they’ve vaccinated half of their population. I’m going to guess it’s the Jewish half."

"It’s amazing that they have not apologized yet," Hikind said to the Post. “They did something so egregious, so horrible; I’m personally sick and tired of a major network like NBC indulging in spreading hate. That’s basically what they did.”

“I’m not going to be silent about this stuff that really endangers the Jewish people,” added Hikind.


NBC takes action after 'Nurses' anti-Semitism allegations
NBC has decided that it would no longer offer the season finale of its Canadian series Nurses on its digital platforms after a certain scene prompted outrage from Jewish groups, the online media portal Deadline reported on Wednesday.

The decision comes after the airing of the final episode of the medical drama series, which had an ultra-Orthodox Jew turn down a bone graft because it could be from gentiles.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center lashed out at that depiction, saying that the writers were apparently determined to "check all the boxes of ignorance and pernicious negative stereotypes, right down to the name of the patient" and "demonized religious Jews and Judaism," it said.
UCL, David Miller, Big Issues, Little Issues
Concern about antisemitism in British academia is currently focussed on two principal issues: the decision of its Academic Board to position UCL as an international beacon of antisemitism denial and promotion, and David Miller’s ongoing bizarre antisemitic ranting.

The significance of the decision at UCL lies primarily in the fact that the body representing the academics at this institution has responded to a year-long campaign against the IHRA definition of antisemitism by demanding that the institution rescind its adoption of the IHRA definition. The world’s universities are full of academics who regularly criticize the IHRA definition in public statements, sign petitions to this end and do what they can to prevent their institutions from adopting it. Yet, to the best of my knowledge, this is the first time that they have mounted a sustained campaign to try and force their institution to go back on the decision to adopt it. By way of an analogy (which is as imperfect as all analogies are): the post-war consensus in Germany has been that people can think and say whatever they like about Jews in private as long as they keep their peace when the country’s official or semi-official representatives distance themselves from antisemitism, however disingenuously, in public. The decision of the Academic Board is equivalent to the bulk of the German population telling their representatives that they will no longer tolerate their publicly displayed opposition to antisemitism. The seriousness of this development can hardly be overstated.

David Miller reminds me of the Young Hegelian professor Bruno Bauer (a significant and innovative antisemite, incidentally) who could barely find words to express his outrage at the fact that the church would not tolerate his holding a chair in theology just because he was trying to convert his students to atheism. The suggestion that an academic might be sacked for the opinions they express should indeed send chills down the spine of any self-respecting academic. Yet the assumption that this is the issue at stake in Miller’s case reflects an extraordinary ignorance regarding antisemitism that it is very hard, when displayed by anyone who was not born yesterday, not to consider wilful. To quote Sartre yet again, “I refuse to characterize as opinion a doctrine that is aimed directly at particular persons and that seeks to suppress their rights or to exterminate them. … Antisemitism does not fall within the category of ideas protected by the right of free opinion.” There is an added irony here in that it is, in most cases, the very same people who want each and every one of us to be constantly aware of a myriad of acts that might be perceived of as constituting microaggressions by the members of various groups who also insist that only exponential ultra-macroaggressions might conceivably qualify as the faintest whiff of antisemitism.
Anglican Vicar Targets ‘Masa Israel Journey’ in Latest Anti-Semitic Blood Libel Campaign
Stephen Sizer, the former vicar of the Anglican parish of Christ Church, Virginia Water, in Surrey, England, on Saturday launched a campaign vilifying Masa Israel Journey, considered the leading long-term Israel experience for diaspora Jews.

Sizer posted on Facebook:
Many British Jews do a gap-year visit to Israel, hosted by the Masa program. Some join Marva, an IDF program which includes weapons training, exercises and education. Some even serve in the IDF, carrying weapons in the killing fields of the West Bank. One such British citizen was involved in killing a Palestinian youth last month.
Such actions warrant prosecution under UK law, such as its anti-terror laws, which apply to terrorist acts anywhere in the world. But of course, such laws have been designed and used instead to protect terrorist states allied with the UK.

The Jewish Press covered the killing of the Arab youth in late January (Terrorist Killed in Stabbing Attack at Giti Avishar Junction in Samaria) and omitted the fact that the female IDF soldier he was trying to stab was a lone soldier from London, a fact which someone at the IDF spokesperson’s office chose to publicize, and the Jerusalem Post proudly repeated:
A lone soldier from London helped thwart a stabbing attack against soldiers guarding Gitit Avishar junction near the settlement of Ariel in Samaria on Tuesday. The Palestinian terrorist was killed. Cpl. Lian Harush was at the junction along with her commander when a Palestinian, Attallah Mohammad Rayyan, 17, approached and tried to stab her. Her commander, Sgt. Y., shot and killed the terrorist.

Turns out UK anti-Semites like Sizer read the Jerusalem Post, and used the story to launch a propaganda story depicting Masa as a training program for bloodthirsty British Jews set on murdering innocent Arabs.


Rep. Paul Gosar speaks at conference hosted by far-right figure Nick Fuentes
Rep. Paul Gosar spoke at the America First Political Action Conference on Friday, an event hosted by Nick Fuentes, an online personality who has engaged in apparent Holocaust denialism and downplayed Jim Crow laws.

The Republican congressman from Arizona spoke after Rep. Steve King and before Fuentes's closing speech. Gosar addressed censorship, immigration, and claims of election fraud.

Speaking about the removal of some right-wing voices from social media, Gosar said, "We have here today many people who have first-hand knowledge of what I'm talking about, including Laura Loomer, who has been relegated to a third-class citizenship. ... She is our canary in the coal mine."

"We have a climate crisis, but it's not about the moon and the oceans," he added. "We have a climate crisis of intolerance. A climate crisis of communists who suppress free speech, suppress our votes, suppress our citizens in favor of aliens, and undermine our republic. That is the climate crisis."

Gosar continued: "The power structures did everything they could to defeat a populist, America First president, but men don't gripe about fairness. President Trump's America First movement is high-energy with a stoic spirit and the principles to prevail."

In a tweet on Saturday, Fuentes said he had a "great meeting today with Congressman Gosar!"
Police Arrest Oklahoma Teens for Vandalizing Children’s Holocaust Memorial
Two teens were arrested after they were caught on camera Wednesday morning toppling memorials dedicated to children killed during the Holocaust.

The five, custom-made metal sculptures were housed on the grounds of the Sherwin Miller Museum of Jewish Art in Tulsa, Okla. Each statue is filled with 2,000 rocks and has the names of Jewish children who were murdered on them.

The teen suspects, ages 15 and 16, were seen on video “bending the metal statues and knocking them down while also attempting to steal them unsuccessfully,” according to the museum, which estimates the damage to be upwards of $15,000.

“You come outside and your car’s been egged, that’s not great,” said Tulsa Police Lt. William White in a video posted online. “But when you have statues dedicated to the children lost in one of the greatest tragedies of humankind, obviously, there’s a different tier there. We are taking this very seriously.”

According to the police, the teens were apprehended with the help of the public, who called in tips as to their identity.

The suspects were arrested for “assault with a deadly weapon and felony vandalism [The technical term is malicious injury or destruction of property]. In this case, it’s a felony because the damage exceeds $1,000. … For those asking about charging with a hate crime, it is only a misdemeanor. They were charged with a higher crime felony, ‘vandalism.’ ”
Hundreds of German police swoop on members of banned anti-Semitic Islamic group
Hundreds of German police officers conducted coordinated raids early Thursday in Berlin and the surrounding state of Brandenburg in the investigation of an organization banned over allegations of Islamic extremism.

Some 850 police, including SWAT teams, were involved in the raids of apartments linked to members of the organization known as Jama’atu Berlin, the state Interior Ministry said.

The organization, whose name translates literally as the “Berlin Group,” was banned by Berlin’s state Interior Minister Andreas Geisel ahead of the raids on the grounds it was a “very radical” group that followed the Islamic State group’s ideology.

“The ban is another clear signal to all religious extremists,” Geisel said. “We will fight the roots of terror. We will tolerate no place where terror is preached and the so-called Islamic State is glorified.”

Authorities said the organization espoused an anti-Semitic ideology and advocated “armed jihad and terrorist attacks on civilians.” The raids were meant to secure its assets and look for evidence, authorities said, and no arrests were announced.


In post-WWII Nuremberg and New York, Purim’s future once hung in the balance
By 1943, news of the unfolding Holocaust was on the radio and covers of newspapers. The influential publisher of “The Sentinel,” A.A. Freedlander, said Purim would no longer be needed after the war. Purim celebration in 1955 (public domain)

“When Hitler is gone we shall celebrate another Purim in commemoration of his defeat, but let it be our last such festival, for we shall no longer be the defenseless, homeless, helpless folk whose very weakness invited attack,” wrote Freedlander in an editorial on March 18, 1943.

In particular, Freedlander pointed to the emerging Jewish state as being a source of inspiration for “hundreds of thousands of Jews” in the US.

“More has to be considered this year than the utter crushing of Hitler as of Haman before him,” wrote Freedlander. “In our times we begin to see the restoration of national dignity to our gypsy people. …[Building the state] exceeds every other [task] in importance as Purim is observed this year.” Israelis enjoy a Purim parade, the largest in the country, in the city of Holon, during the Jewish holiday of Purim, March 21, 2019. (Flash90)

Contrary to the predictions of Freedlander and Waxman, American Jews did not give up on Purim. In recent years, activists have connected Purim to numerous social and charitable causes, while the “spiel” — including spiels that make fun of Hitler — has never been abandoned.

Said Nazi-hunter Zuroff, “I sometimes wonder whether we Jews are doing the right thing when we publicize the Nazi war criminals and their crimes. After all, we say ‘Yimach shemo,’ about our enemies — May their names be blotted out,” he said.

“But having said that, we realized after the [Holocaust] that the only way to help prevent such tragedies, is to make sure that as many people as possible know exactly what happened, and who was responsible for this enormous tragedy/disaster,” Zuroff told The Times of Israel.
Ben Cohen: Remembering Manfred Gerstenfeld: Truth Against Myth
There is an acerbic joke that you sometimes hear in the Netherlands to the effect that most Dutch people were part of the anti-Nazi resistance, but that they joined “after the war.” Like all the best jokes, it cuts into the myths we human beings create about ourselves in order to ward off the guilt and shame that our actions sometimes produce.

Yet the basic truths — in the Dutch wartime case that collaboration with the occupying Germans was widespread, that many people turned a blind eye to what was happening around them, that the overwhelming majority of the country’s Jews were deported and exterminated — can’t be hidden forever, no matter how much we try to deceive ourselves and others.

In that regard, Manfred Gerstenfeld, who passed away in Jerusalem on Feb. 25 at age 84, was an unrivaled master of the art of deconstructing myths in order to reveal bald truths. He did so through his myriad books and articles examining the persistence of antisemitism after the Holocaust, most of all in the various countries of Europe, the continent where he was born and lived for much of his life.

I knew Gerstenfeld personally for nearly 20 years as both a friend and an intellectual mentor. Outwardly, he was the very model of a European gentleman, always impeccably dressed and speaking with an accent that gave away his Viennese roots. On several trips to Jerusalem, I visited the apartment where he lived with his late wife, and where — sitting in his book-lined living room with a tumbler of scotch in hand — I would listen to his insights into the bursts of antisemitism that were appearing with greater frequency in and beyond Europe, invariably admiring Gerstenfeld’s ability to identify the ideas and themes that linked seemingly disconnected events.



Jordan says international law mandates antisemitism




The Jordanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned "the continuing violations of the Al-Aqsa Mosque / Al-Haram Al-Sharif," specifically today's visit by 153 Jews to the site for the holiday of Purim which is celebrated in Jerusalem today.

The spokesperson for the ministry, Dhaifallah Ali Al-Fayez, said that "the raids of extremists under the protection of the police are a flagrant violation of the existing legal and historical status, international law and the obligations of Israel, the occupying power in occupied East Jerusalem, in accordance with international law."

Al-Fayez added that "the Blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque / Al-Haram Al-Qudsi Al-Sharif, with its entire area of ​​144 dunums, is a pure place of worship for Muslims, and that the Department of the Jerusalem Endowments and the Jordanian Al-Aqsa Mosque affairs are the legal body with exclusive jurisdiction to manage all the affairs of the Haram and regulate entry to it."

He called on the international community to shoulder its responsibilities to pressure Israel to stop the ongoing violations and provocations on the Temple Mount.

In practical terms, this means that Jews, and only Jews, should be banned from visiting the most holy site in Judaism. Before 1948, non-Jews could visit the Mount  under the Waqf, so this isn't a Muslim thing. This is pure antisemitism.

And an official of the Jordanian government is saying that antisemitism is not only legal but a requirement under international law. 



Iran practically admits it attacked civilian Israeli-owned cargo ship Helios Ray



Iran's Kayhan newspaper, which is aligned with Iran's Supreme Leader Khamenei, has all but admitted that the attack on an Israeli cargo ship Helios Ray was done by Iranian forces.

In an article headlined "Evil in Syria and Iraq was answered in Yemen and the Sea of ​​Oman," the newspaper concluded "this spy ship, despite moving secretly, has probably been ambushed by one of the branches of the Axis of Resistance."

The "Axis of Resistance" includes pro-Iran forces in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Lebanon, but the only possible source for such an attack in the Gulf of Oman is Iran itself.

The article says, "The attacks and crimes of the Zionist regime in the region, which have been carried out in public for some time, seem to have finally turned that regime into a legitimate target. A likely warship of this regime has been professionally targeted in the Oman Sea, which has completely confused the regime and its allies."

The Helios Ray was apparently hit by limpet mines, suffering two holes on both the starboard and port sides of the ship, each with a diameter of 1.5 meters. 

The ship is a vehicle carrier, and was traveling en route from Saudi Arabia to Singapore. It is registered under the flag of the Bahamas.

The damaged ship is now docked in Dubai.

Israeli officials say the attack has the hallmarks of  being from Iran, and it is similar to other attacks on ships in the Gulf of Oman attributed to Iran over the years.

The Kayhan newspaper alleges that the cargo ship was in fact a spy ship, claiming that the owner of the ship, Abraham "Rami" Ungar, is friends with Yossi Cohen, the head of the Mossad. 

Iran's pretense that the Helios Ray is a spy vessel is justification for the attack. It knows that any attack on a civilian target is terrorism by definition so, like Hamas shooting rockets to Israeli towns, it is pretending that the target is in fact military. 

Make no mistake, though: this is state sponsored terrorism. 

This is a rare case where Iran is practically admitting a direct attack on Israel. Usually it hides its attacks behind proxies like Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad.

Israel is likely to respond in a measured way to avoid escalation but also to make clear that it will not tolerate such an attack. 



A non-Zionist Jew exposes the antisemitism of the "anti-Zionists"



An interesting point from Daniel Finkelstein writing in TheJC:

Have you had a chance to read David Baddiel’s new book Jews Don’t Count? I think you ought. You might think you have read everything about antisemitism that you can be bothered with. But I think you should nevertheless bother with this.
...
I find it annoying when someone makes a point about Israel in response to an article I have written about, I don’t know, the rate of corporation tax or regression to the mean in football. I might object that Israel has got nothing to do with the point I am making and the person is only making the point because I’m Jewish. Yet in response they can always say, no, they are making it because I’m a Zionist.

This might be obviously disingenuous but it is hard to disprove.

David Baddiel is not a Zionist. I may disagree, but the power of this in the debate on antisemitism is immense. The same person replies to him about Israel after he makes a joke about corporation tax or mean reversion in football and he is able to — and does — expose the true antisemitic nature of the comment.

This makes him a hugely valuable part of the resistance to Jew hatred. It wouldn’t, in my view, be enough by itself because I think Israel is vital and David is wrong about that. But the breadth he provides is very important.
...[In addition,] he argues that the progressive left has adopted identity politics but many don’t then count Jews as an identity. People who say racist things are “cancelled”, but not if they say racist things about Jews. People who play ethnic roles as actors are excoriated if they don’t come that ethnic group themselves, unless they are a non-Jew playing a Jew. People who use ethnic influences in cooking from groups to which they don’t belong are accused of cultural appropriation unless they are appropriating Jewish food.

One or two critics have argued that none of these progressive rules are all that sensible and that the problem is with identity politics. This, however, is to miss Baddiel’s point. His book is addressed to progressives who accept identity politics. He is pointing out — and in a way that is startling and stark — their exclusion of Jews.

Nick Cohen's review of the book concentrates on the latter point:

David Baddiel’s Jews Don’t Count is out this week; a piercing 28,000-word essay that throws you back to the age of pamphlet wars. His central and unanswerable contention is that, in a time of identity politics, when every persecuted minority is listened to, there is one ethnic minority large numbers of progressives do not want to hear from: Jews, one of the most persecuted minorities in history. Baddiel builds his argument by weaving in examples so skilfully all but the most bigoted reader has to accept he has a case. A few are familiar. The people on the UK left who stuck with Jeremy Corbyn after he defended a mural showing hook-nosed capitalists, that might have come straight out of Nazi Germany. But many are drawn from a world that is unfamiliar, to me at any rate. I never knew, for instance, that Alice Walker, author of the idolised novel, The Colour Purple, took the time and trouble in 2017 to sit down and write a poem bubbling with hate entitled ‘To Study The Talmud’.

Are Goyim (us) meant to be slaves of Jews, and not only

That, but to enjoy it?

Are three year old (and a day) girls eligible for marriage and intercourse?

Are young boys fair game for rape?

It was grotesque. But the idea that an African-American author could ever be cancelled for racism against Jews remains unthinkable to right-thinking people, even though Walker went on to endorse the works of David Icke, whose anti-vax lies could incidentally lead to the deaths of, among others, a disproportionately high number of black people suffering from Covid-19. In 2019, a musical version of the Colour Purple came to the UK. There was a hell of a fuss because Seyi Omooba, one of the cast, had once written an anti-gay post. The producers fired her, of course. Omooba’s prejudice was unforgivable, while Walker’s was, if not quite forgivable, then a matter of no consequence.

 

Saturday, February 27, 2021

02/27 Links: Israel's Strategy To Stop Iran's Existential Threats; IfNotNow smears IHRA definition as a ‘threat’ to progressivism; Get vaccinated now! The Torah commands it

From Ian:

Seth Frantzman: Israel's Strategy To Stop Iran's Existential Threats
Israel is willing to take action to prevent Iran obtaining nuclear weapons, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz said this week. His statement framed part of a full-court press of Israel warning of Iran's regional threats as Tehran continues to enrich uranium. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has long warned of Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons, but the transition to a new administration in Washington has been exploited by Iran to increase its enrichment and threats. A senior Israeli defense official laid out to me this week how seriously Israel views the threat. Tehran should listen.

Israel has acted in the past to prevent Iraq and Syria from obtaining nuclear capabilities. Netanyahu warned in a 2012 speech to the United Nations that a red line must be drawn on Iran's nuclear enrichment program. Now Iran's Ayatollah Khamenei says Iran could increase the levels of enrichment to 60 percent. This is a nuclear numbers game that Iran uses like a game of chicken with the U.S., hoping the Biden administration will blink and jump right back into an Iran Deal 2.0.

For Israel, it's essential that the U.S. understand Jerusalem's views. Israel doesn't want a nuclear arms race in the region. Iran is an existential threat and no matter who wins Israel's elections next month, Israel will not accept a threat that violates its declared red lines. At the same time, Israel wants the U.S. and its Western allies to know that they can count on Israel to confront Iran's proxies and various entrenchments throughout the region. In January 2019, former Israel Defense Forces Chief of General Staff Gadi Eizenkot revealed that Israel had carried out more than 1,000 airstrikes on Iranian targets in Syria. Since then, Israel has continued what it calls the "campaign between the wars" to stop Iran's entrenchment in Syria and transfer of weapons to Hezbollah in Lebanon.

There is no substitute for U.S. power and influence in the Middle East, the senior Israeli defense official told Newsweek this week. This unshakable bond with the U.S. is essential, as is bipartisan support for Israel in Congress. Part of this support for Israel also anchors the Jewish state in the region via new U.S.-brokered peace deals with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, and it is linked to U.S. support for other important partners, such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan. While the Biden administration has been critical of Egyptian and Saudi human rights abuses, as Secretary of State Antony Blinken recently indicated in a call with his Egyptian counterpart, Israel hopes this criticism will go hand-in-hand with continued U.S. support.
Iran doesn’t hate Israel
Last week, the Iranian judo champion Saeid Mollaei, who accepted a life of exile rather than refuse to compete against Israelis, took part in a tournament in Tel Aviv. He was welcomed to the country by the Israeli Judo champion Sagi Muki, who called the Iranian his ‘brother’.

Mollaei was one of many young Iranian athletes from conservative roots who used their profession as a means to escape and take a public stand against the Ayatollahs. And it is not only the younger generation that is liberalising.

After the Islamic revolution of 1979, ordinary Iranians tended to embrace the anti-Israeli and anti-Western slogans pumped out by the new rulers. Not anymore. Pro-Israel views range from an ‘Iran first’ indifference to the Jewish state – a popular slogan is ‘Not Gaza, not Lebanon, my life only for Iran’ – to out-and-out Iranian pro-Zionism, which is tied into a hatred for the theocracy that makes hell out of daily life.

In such a corrupt, statist country, huge numbers of people rely for their living on the government, and this has traditionally helped to keep any resistance in check. And citizens have previously put up with the oppression partly out of a hope for reform. But the bite of sanctions is making people bolder. Sporadic demonstrations are put down with increasing levels of lethality, to which the public is gradually becoming inured. Perhaps the only thing saving the Ayatollah is the absence of a well-organised opposition.

From the regime’s point of view, all of this makes the threat of popular uprising very real. The authorities are in a constant state of alert, clamping down on organised groups such as labour unions in a desperate bid to cauterise any roots of dissent. State surveillance has become absurdly extensive. In fact, Israeli intelligence sources have told me that their spies are able to operate so effectively in Iran because the security services are burdened by having to monitor such large numbers of their own citizens.

Recently, while briefing off-the-record on aggressive operations targeting the Tehran regime, an Israeli official described the place as a ‘beautiful country with beautiful people’. ‘We are aiming to defend ourselves, not harm them,’ the source told me.

In this statement, I found great hope. Israel and Iran may be sworn enemies, but take the regime away and there is no bad feeling. In their deep tolerance, the people of Iran are remarkable. The international community must not lose its affection for them, or allow their reputation to be contaminated by their oppressors. Iran: we love you; we respect you; we are waiting for you. One day, there will be peace.
IfNotNow smears IHRA definition as a ‘threat’ to progressivism
The self-proclaimed Jewish-American “progressive” organization IfNotNow hosted a discussion on Jan. 27 about “how the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism has been destroying the progressive movement.” The word “discussion,” may, in fact, be too generous a term for what was, in reality, a diatribe of misinformation.

An address by Taher Herzallah, associate director of outreach and grassroots organizing for American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), took up much of the event. It should be noted right away that AMP’s platforms disseminate anti-Jewish propaganda. Articles on its website complain about “Jews … illegally colonizing the occupied territories” and “Zionist Jews” who have the gall to regard Jerusalem as the undivided capital of the Jewish state. Appallingly, a video posted to AMP’s Facebook page commemorating “Nakba Day” falsely presents a picture of Holocaust victims as Palestinian victims of Israeli violence (the picture in question is displayed at 1:25 in the video). IfNotNow has partnered with AMP in the past.

Herzallah has hardly shied away from hatred himself. At a 2014 AMP conference, he reportedly claimed: “Israelis have to be bombed; they are a threat to the legitimacy of Palestine, and it is wrong to maintain the State of Israel.” That same year, AMP hosted a fundraiser dinner in honor of Rasmea Odeh, a convicted terrorist directly responsible for the deaths of two civilians in a 1969 grocery-store bombing in Jerusalem. IfNotNow may purport to “stand up for the freedom and dignity for all Israelis and Palestinians,” but its embrace of AMP suggests otherwise.

The rhetoric spouted by Herzallah during this event is of equal concern. He egregiously asserted that “people like [him] … had to pay the price” for the Holocaust—an obvious attempt to appropriate the trauma of the victims of Nazi genocide on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, no less. He even dismissed the well-documented alliance between “certain Palestinian leaders” and the Nazi regime as part of a “myth” before later insisting that “we want to question the existence of the State of Israel itself.” This questioning, he urged, “should not be off the table.”


Get vaccinated now! The Torah commands it
During my visits to coronavirus wards at hospitals across Israel, I encountered a most worrying statistic. All of the hospitalized were relatively young people who had not been vaccinated. A few minutes after one such visit, I learned that a childhood friend of mine, a healthy individual with no pre-existing conditions, had died. That morning, he had found it difficult to breathe; by 5 p.m., he headed downstairs to the ambulance waiting to take him to the hospital. By 2 a.m. the next morning, he was gone.

These visits and this news have led me to call on all of you to get vaccinated.

We have the incredible fortune afforded to us by God to have a vaccine, but many of us still contemplate the move, despite the fact that halachah (Jewish law) mandates that we inoculate against the virus.

According to senior physicians in Israel and around the world, the vaccine is the best answer to the coronavirus. The risk of the virus is certain. The risks posed by the vaccine are in question. These doctors’ unequivocal position has been that we must vaccinate unless instructed otherwise by a doctor.

I wonder who gave certain individuals the courage to play with people’s lives. How can irresponsible people try and undermine something that has been proven to save lives?

Unfortunately, this phenomenon of convention-breaking is not just typical of our battle with the coronavirus; we see this in many other fields. Those same people who work so hard to prevent people from getting the vaccine bear no responsibility for the public. While they say that they want to preserve their rights, they are in fact harming their fellow man.
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla calls Israel 'world's lab' in interview to NBC
"I believe Israel has become the world's lab right now because they are using only our vaccine at this state and they have vaccinated a very big part of their population, so we can study both economy and health indices," said Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla during an interview given to NBC News on Friday.

"What we've seen is that the vaccine efficacy in real-world data is getting higher as we speak, following the second vaccination, so seven days compared to 14 days post-second vaccination, there is a difference in efficacy," Bourla claimed.

When asked whether one could infect others after receiving two doses of the vaccine, he said: "It is something that needs to be confirmed, and the real-world data that we are getting from Israel and other studies will help us understand this better.

"But there are a lot of indicators right now that are telling us that there is a protection against the transmission of the disease," Bourla added.

Bourla further noted that studies on the risk of the vaccine are also underway on pregnant women and younger children.

"We have already licensed for kids 16 and above... we are already doing trials for kids between 11 years old all the way to 16, and I hope that we will be able to have data in a couple of months. We are also planning to initiate pediatric studies from a younger age, from age 5 all the way to 11. And I believe we should have data about this population by the end of the year," Bourla said, according to NBC.
Austrian chancellor, Danish PM to visit Israel for COVID cooperation
Austria's Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said on Twitter that he will travel to Israel with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen on March 4 to expand cooperation on the handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

"We have been in close contact with our partners Denmark and Israel," said Kurz, who said the partnership has been ongoing since spring. Kurz said that he and Frederiksen will cooperate with Netanyahu on the "research and production of vaccines and drugs," saying that the first priority is to accelerate the production and procurement of vaccines.

The tweet is part of a thread posted on Saturday that addresses Kurz's plans for Austria's return to post-pandemic life.

"With the vaccination we will return to normal in the summer," tweeted Kurz. "The pandemic will continue to preoccupy us with mutations that may require further vaccines and treatments," Kurz went on to say, explaining that this means Austria must continue to work to prepare for post-vaccine life with the coronavirus.

"The aim must be to adapt existing vaccines and therapies as quickly as possible or produce new ones as quickly as possible."
Israel suspends delivery of vaccines to other countries amid legal uncertainty
Israel has halted its plan to ship surplus coronavirus vaccines to a group of friendly nations as authorities examine whether it was in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s authority to order the move, the Justice Ministry said Thursday.

The announcement put a freeze on a plan that reportedly would have seen up to 100,000 vaccine doses sent to numerous countries.

In a statement, Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit said he had received a number of requests to review Netanyahu’s decision. One of those requests, he said, came from Netanyahu’s National Security Adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat, who told Mandelblit he had been instructed, apparently by the prime minister, to “freeze any action on the matter.”

It was the latest twist in a saga that has raised questions at home about Netanyahu’s decision-making authority as well as his move to help far-flung nations in Africa and Latin America at a time when the neighboring Palestinian territories are struggling to secure their own vaccine supplies. The plan has also illustrated how at a time of global shortages, the vaccine has become an asset that can be used for diplomatic gain.

Earlier Thursday, Defense Minister Benny Gantz called for a halt in the shipments, saying Israel’s stockpile of vaccines is the property of the state. He attacked the prime minister’s go-it-alone approach and questioned Netanyahu’s claims that there are really excess supplies when Israelis still have not been fully vaccinated.

“This is not the first time that significant defense and diplomatic decisions are being made behind the backs of the relevant bodies, while possibly damaging our national security, our foreign relations, and the rule of law,” Gantz wrote. “This is a pattern which impinges upon our ability to manage the country soundly.”
In Line For Senior Job at State, Sanders Aide Accuses Biden of Illegal Military Action
A top aide for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) who is reportedly in line to join the Biden administration took to Twitter Friday morning to assail the administration’s surprise airstrike in Syria by U.S. forces, the first military action in the war-torn country authorized by President Joe Biden.

Matt Duss, a Sanders aide who has established himself as a leading anti-Israel activist on the left, wrote that "Congress has not authorized war in Syria," echoing criticism from many on the left who see the military strike on Syria-based Iranian militias as an illegal and unconstitutional act of war by the Biden administration.

The remark, one of several criticisms leveled by far-left foreign policy observers, comes as Duss is reportedly in line for a job at Biden's State Department. While his rumored hiring has garnered praise from the Democratic Party’s left flank, it is unusual for prospective hires to accuse their prospective employers of war crimes.

It is not the first time Duss has criticized the president—last year he accused Biden "of undermining [former president Barack] Obama's peace effort" between the Israelis and Palestinians, saying that Biden's pro-Israel approach "has been wholly discredited by the last three years."

It remains unclear what position Duss is in consideration for at the State Department. He is one of more than 100 hundred hires the progressive community is championing for jobs in the Democratic administration in hopes of pushing the State Department further left on foreign policy issues. In addition to his anti-war advocacy, Duss is a longtime critic of the U.S. alliance with Israel and has pushed to limit cooperation between America and the Middle East’s sole democracy.
‘Jewish ideas poison people,’ State Department official writes in blog
A US State Department employee named Fritz Berggren has been moonlighting as a blogger devoted to attacking Jews and promoting white Christian nationalism.

“Jesus Christ came to save the whole world from the Jews — the founders of the original Anti-Christ religion, they who are the seed of the Serpent, that brood of vipers,” Berggren wrote in an October 4, 2020, post on his website titled “Jews are Not God’s Chosen People. Judeo-Christian is Anti-Christ.”

Later in the post he writes, “Jewish ideas poison people.”

Berggren has been sharing his extremist and anti-Semitic views under his real name for years while working as a mid-level civil servant. Politico first reported the connection on Friday after being tipped off by current and former State Department officials.

Berggren espouses the idea, common among the far-right, that white people are at risk of being eliminated through demographic change and organized persecution. He commonly rails against Black Lives Matter and other social movements identified with the left.

On Friday afternoon, he published a new post titled, “Welcome, Politico readers!” He concluded the post with a PS: “If you have not already surmised, my ideas are my own and not a reflection of any employer, company, agency, country, etc.”

Politico reported that Berggren works for a State Department unit that handles special immigrant visas for Afghans. He has been identified as a Foreign Service worker since as early as 2009.


Blaming Iran, security officials said to back response to blast on Israeli ship
Israeli security officials view the attack on an Israeli-owned ship in the Persian Gulf on Friday as a crossing of a red line on the part of Iran, and support an Israeli response, according to a report Saturday.

Kan News said Israel unequivocally believes Tehran was behind the explosion, and high-level discussions on the matter are expected to take place Sunday.

In an interview Saturday, Defense Minister Benny Gantz told Kan there is “a likelihood” that Iran is behind the explosion.

The cargo ship MV Helios Ray anchored in Dubai on Saturday morning. The blast did not disable the ship or injure its crew, but forced it ashore for repairs.

In an interview with Kan News, Gantz said that the proximity between the location of the incident and the Islamic Republic raised concerns that it was responsible for the attack, but added that a probe had not yet been completed.

“We need to continue investigating,” he stressed. “The Iranians are looking to harm Israelis and Israeli infrastructure. The proximity to Iran leads to the assessment that there is a likelihood that this is an Iranian initiative. We are committed to continuing to check.”

Channel 13 News reported that security officials believed the attack was carried out by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, who fired two missiles at the ship.

The report said Israeli and US teams were expected to arrive on the ship to investigate the explosion in the coming days.
Israel stayed away from UAE arms fair ‘for fear Iran would target its delegates’
Israel canceled its participation in this week’s Abu Dhabi arms fair because of fears that its delegates would be targeted for assassination by Iran, a television report said.

The Israeli delegation was to have included the heads of Israel’s major defense companies, seeking lucrative contracts and underlining the newly normalized relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates.

The biennial International Defense Exhibition and Conference, or IDEX, long has been the largest defense showcase in the Middle East. This year’s event was the first time that Israel had been invited.

The Defense Ministry announced on February 15 that the Israeli delegation would not attend after all, however, citing coronavirus restrictions that have forced the closure of Ben Gurion Airport.

This was only a pretext, Channel 12 news reported Saturday night. In fact, Israel canceled its participation because of fears that its delegates would be targeted by Iran — seeking to avenge a series of attacks attributed to Israel in which Iranian nuclear scientists have been killed and nuclear facilities sabotaged. In the most high-profile such incident recently, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, the alleged father of Iran’s rogue nuclear weapons program, was killed outside Tehran in November in an attack widely attributed to Israel.

The TV report said the UAE authorities were told the true reason for the cancelation, and accepted it without rancor. It said the decision to cancel was taken by “the security establishment,” and was not a source of dispute between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Benny Gantz.
PA to close schools, partially lock down West Bank as cases double in two weeks
The Palestinian Authority will enact a partial lockdown in the West Bank for the next 12 days after cases more than doubled over the past two weeks, PA Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh said Saturday.

The steps will include a closure of all educational institutions; a ban on travel between provinces; a ban on the entry of Arab Israelis; a ban on all parties, weddings and funerals; a nighttime curfew, with all vehicular travel prohibited; and a full lockdown on weekends.

Health officials had called for a “full two-week lockdown” in their recommendations to the prime minister. In televised remarks on Saturday, Shtayyeh did not say why a partial lockdown had been chosen rather than a full one.

“A two-week [total] lockdown would reduce the number of infections, reduce transmission and reduce hospital occupancy,” Palestinian Authority Health Minister Mai Al-Kaila had said on Thursday.

According to the PA Health Ministry, there are currently 12,015 active cases in the West Bank. Two weeks ago, there were only 5,971 West Bank cases, the Health Ministry reported.

Around 24 percent of coronavirus tests came back positive across the West Bank on Saturday. In some governorates, this has risen as high as 30% over the past few days.
Hamas naval vessel posing as fishing boat said destroyed off Gaza coast
A Hamas naval vessel posing as a fishermen’s boat off the Gaza coast this week was the source of a “potential threat” to Israeli ships in the area, according to an unsourced report by Channel 12 on Friday.

The network’s military correspondent reported that many of the details of the incident on Monday were banned from publication by the military censor, but the Hamas boat was destroyed and sunk by a missile fired by Israeli forces, according to the report which could not be verified.

It was not immediately clear how many people were aboard, but Channel 12 reported that the boat was operated by members of Hamas’s naval commando unit.

The Palestinian news site Shehab had reported that the boat was destroyed by two missiles off the coast of the Gazan city of Khan Younis.

On Monday, the Israel Defense Forces said it uncovered a “potential threat” to naval ships off the Gaza coast, without elaborating on the nature of the threat.

“Earlier today, our troops spotted suspicious naval activity in the maritime zone along the Gaza Strip which posed a potential threat to Israeli Navy vessels,” the military said.

“IDF troops detected the activity and thwarted it,” the military added.
Congress must check Biden's risky Iran reset
Just days after U.S. forces in Iraq suffered casualties from a rocket attack likely launched by an Iran-backed militia, the Biden administration appeared to turn the other cheek by signaling openness last week to talks with Iran to reenter the flawed nuclear deal that President Donald Trump rightly quit in 2018.

It is becoming clear that with the Biden administration, the American people can expect a strategy of appeasement in the Middle East and a foreign policy mashup of President Barack Obama’s worst hits: reentering the failed Iran nuclear deal, rolling back America’s restored alliances, and sapping momentum from the Abraham Accords.

Congress must proactively serve as a check on President Joe Biden’s headstrong drive to reset relations with Iran’s terror-sponsoring regime.

Toward that end, I am introducing the Iran Sanctions Relief Review Act. This legislation would build on the precedent of a 2017 bipartisan law that empowers Congress to vote to support — or block — Russian sanctions relief. It would apply these identical congressional review procedures to any future Iran sanctions relief, including any to revive the Iran nuclear deal.

The Middle East strategy of the Biden administration takes its lead from former President Obama, who was blinded by the false hope of transforming Iran into a moderate partner. As a consequence, the Obama administration alienated our regional allies by pursuing the fatally-flawed nuclear deal.

Unsurprisingly, Iran used the nuclear deal’s massive financial windfall to fund proxy wars, terrorism, missiles, cyber attacks, and the barbarous Assad regime. Worse, the Obama administration responded slowly as ISIS conquered vast territory, Syria fell into chaos, and Russia reentered the Middle East for the first time since 1973.

The Trump administration spent the last four years repairing this damage. It took deliberate — and, at times, bold — steps to restore relations with Israel, Egypt, and the Gulf States.
New Bill Would Mandate Congress Approve Any Sanctions Relief for Iran
New legislation being circulated by Republican Senate leaders would handicap the Biden administration’s renewed diplomacy with Iran by requiring that Congress approve any effort to provide the regime with economic sanctions relief as part of a revamped nuclear deal, according to a copy of the measure obtained exclusively by the Washington Free Beacon.

The bill marks a major legislative shot across the bow by Senate Republicans as the Biden administration pursues direct negotiations with Iran about reentering the 2015 nuclear accord. Iranian leaders are already demanding the United States provide it with billions of dollars in sanctions relief and cash assets before it agrees to bring its growing nuclear program back in compliance with the accord. The new legislation would mandate the Biden administration go to Congress for approval of any sanctions relief package, potentially complicating efforts by the White House to skirt Congress as it negotiates with Tehran.

The Iran Sanctions Relief Review Act of 2021, authored by Sen. Bill Hagerty (R., Tenn.), a member of the Banking Committee and Foreign Relations Committee, already has the backing of 20 Senate Republicans, including Tom Cotton (Ark.), Roy Blunt (Mo.), John Cornyn (Texas), Marco Rubio (Fla.), Joni Ernst (Iowa), and Ben Sasse (Neb.), among others.

The bill is just the latest effort in a broadening campaign by Republican lawmakers to stop the Biden administration from rushing into a deal that a significant portion of congressional leaders oppose. Rep. Tim Burchett (R., Tenn.), for instance, petitioned the State Department on Thursday to provide lawmakers with information about secret talks between U.S.-Iran envoy Robert Malley and Chinese leaders, as the Free Beacon first reported.
Seth Frantzman: Beyond Khashoggi: How the US and Saudi Arabia fell out and might ‘reset’
The US decision to release a declassified intelligence report on the murder of former Saudi Arabia insider Jamal Khashoggi could either represent part of the long-term shift in US-Saudi relations or a nadir before a reset.

Ostensibly, the release embarrasses the kingdom. However, like many things relating to how markets and foreign relations perform, this should have been factored in. What this means is that the ire and wrath that was already poured out on Riyadh has been growing for years.

What is actually happening here? It was widely known, or at least suspected to the degree that it becomes a fact, that Riyadh was to blame for the killing of Khashoggi. He disappeared after entering the Saudi Arabia consulate in Istanbul in 2018. When people go into a consulate and don’t come out, that generally means the country disappeared them.

Turkey also used the incident, which it may have had real-time knowledge of or even forewarning about, to push a crisis with Saudi Arabia. This is because when it comes to the Khashoggi affair, there were many things taking place at the same time. He was killed for being a dissident and for embarrassing the kingdom. As a former insider with deep ties to the country, the fact that he went to Qatar, at the time a kind of arch enemy, and was slamming Saudi Arabia in Western and Turkish media, was a problem for Riyadh.

Khashoggi also had deep ties with the foreign policy and think-tank establishment in the US. There doesn’t seem to have been an influential person he didn’t know. For a Saudi government always sensitive to its image in the West – which has worked hard for decades to make sure that high level former regime insiders don’t turn up as critics abroad – silencing him became a priority.
US bans 76 Saudis over Khashoggi killing, but doesn’t sanction crown prince
The United States will ban entry of foreigners who threaten dissidents and will immediately restrict 76 Saudis in honor of the slain Jamal Khashoggi, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday.

After President Joe Biden declassified a report that pinned blame on Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman over Khashoggi’s 2018 killing in Istanbul, Blinken vowed the administration will “push back against governments that reach beyond their borders to threaten and attack journalists and perceived dissidents for exercising their fundamental freedoms.” It did not sanction or otherwise target the crown prince.

“We have made absolutely clear that extraterritorial threats and assaults by Saudi Arabia against activists, dissidents and journalists must end. They will not be tolerated by the United States,” Blinken said in a statement.

Under the new “Khashoggi ban,” the United States will restrict any individuals who have engaged in “serious, extraterritorial counter-dissident activities” that include harassment of journalists or their families, Blinken said.

In a first implementation, Blinken said the United States will ban the entry of 76 Saudis who have been engaged in threatening dissidents overseas including in the Khashoggi case.

The US also imposed sanctions on an elite Saudi unit as well as a former intelligence official over their role in the killing.


Nearly 200 scholars back lecturer who called Jewish students ‘pawns’
About 200 academics from the United Kingdom and the United States have signed a petition defending a British university lecturer who had called Jewish students on his campus “pawns” of Israel, “a violent, racist, foreign regime engaged in ethnic cleansing.”

Jewish groups and organizations have protested the remarks by David Miller, a professor of political sociology at the University of Bristol, made during an online videoconference Feb. 13. Some have called for his ouster.

The signatories of the letter published Friday supporting Miller include linguist Noam Chomsky and gender theorist Judith Butler, both Jewish Americans. The names of Miller’s defenders were removed from the online petition without explanation.

“Prof Miller is an eminent scholar. He is known internationally for exposing the role that powerful actors and well-resourced, co-ordinated networks play in manipulating and stage-managing public debates, including on racism,” the petition read.

Miller had said in the videoconference, titled “Labour Campaign for Free Speech,” that he supported the “end of Zionism as a functioning ideology” and that protests by the Bristol University’s Jewish Society, which is a union of Jewish students, over his previous fulminations against Jews and Israel show that “There is a real question of abuse here — of Jewish students on British campuses being used as political pawns by a violent, racist, foreign regime engaged in ethnic cleansing.” He cited the Jewish Society’s open support for Zionism.

Marie van der Zyl, the president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, wrote last week to the president of the university, Hugh Brady, seeking Miller’s dismissal.
McGill University Jewish Groups Decry ‘Misleading’ BDS Motion Tying Israel to Uighur Persecution
The Jewish community at McGill University spoke out Friday against an “intentionally misleading” divestment motion passed by the Student’s Society of McGill University (SSMU) Legislative Council, which includes Israeli companies alongside others it charges with “forced labor and genocide” in China.

The motion, Divest for Human Rights Policy, calls for the school to divest from a list of companies it says “enable and profit from multiple forms of systemic violence, including settler-colonial land theft, environmental destruction, war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.”

The list includes the real estate company Re/Max and the manufacturer Oshkosh Corporation over their activities in Israel, along with clothing companies like Puma and Foot Locker, which it claims are “complicit” in the genocide of Uighur Muslims in China.

“It is disappointing and deeply offensive that student groups would conflate a two-sided political conflict with a major human rights issue like the Uighur genocide in China to promote an unrelated anti-Israel political agenda, diminishing the call to action for Uyghur justice in the process,” said a Friday statement signed by eight Jewish groups, including Israel on Campus At McGill and Hillel Montreal.

“It is extremely disheartening that time and time again SSMU is revisiting the same debate about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict due to efforts by some to level constant attacks against the Jewish community,” it continued. “These efforts are shameful. We call on SSMU to combat such efforts and focus on prioritizing student wellbeing.”
Tufts U. student group drops complaint over combatting anti-Israel motion
Tufts University's Community Union (TCU) Judiciary, including Jewish student Max Price, had been reported for opposing anti-Israel commentary by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) on campus. Price was consequently targeted with movements to have him removed from student office.

Lawyers who are representing Price, from The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law (LDB), demanded Tufts University urgently intervene and halt the proceedings. Before they could do so, however, SJP revoked the impeachment complaint on Friday.

"While I am relieved that my Judaism is no longer on trial, this change in course does not absolve SJP of their behavior," Price said after the complaint against him was removed. "I am disappointed that university administrators failed to intervene, and have not yet reached out to me to address my concerns. Unless Tufts introduces sweeping reforms to combat antisemitism, this will happen to somebody else."

The complaint against Price blamed Israel and its Jewish-American supporters for fueling racist conduct in US law enforcement, and sought to link Israel to white supremacy and police brutality.

SJP members repeatedly accused Price of bias and allegedly bullied and harassed him. They had reportedly targeted Price for speaking against SJP's attempt to include a Deadly Exchange Campaign (DLC) referendum on the student election ballot, which seeks to end cooperation between US and Israeli police, border patrol, FBI and ICE. The DLC claims that these security forces perform "racial profiling, spying and surveillance, deportation and detention," alongside "attacks on human rights defenders."
Massachusetts school board member resigns after calling Jew a ‘kike’ on live TV
A local school official in Massachusetts who uttered an anti-Semitic slur on TV announced his resignation via Facebook Live video on Friday morning.

Bob Hoey, a member of the Lowell School Committee, was on a local talk show Wednesday morning when he referred to a Jewish former official as a “kike.”

The slur came amid statements denigrating undocumented immigrants, the diversity of a local high school, Indian Americans and US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a progressive Democrat, according to the Lowell Sun.

On Friday, the Sun reported that Hoey announced his resignation on Facebook. The resignation video is no longer public.

Hoey said he has “a big mouth” and “no control over how I talk or speak,” according to the Sun. He also said that he apologizes to the Jewish former official and “to everybody across the country because this thing’s gone all over the place.” Hoey also asked viewers to “condemn that word.”

The Sun reported on Friday that the city manager in the Boston suburb had not yet received official resignation papers from Hoey.
White Supremacist Sentenced to Nearly 20 Years in Plot to Bomb Colorado Synagogue
An avowed white supremacist was sentenced on Friday to 19-1/2 years in prison after pleading guilty months ago to a federal hate-crimes case stemming from a botched plot to bomb a historic Colorado synagogue in 2019.

Richard Holzer, 28, appeared in a federal courtroom in Denver for a sentencing that capped an undercover FBI investigation of a plan to blow up Temple Emanuel in Pueblo, Colorado, the second-oldest synagogue in the state.

Although the plot was thwarted, US District Judge Raymond Moore said Holzer had sought “to terrorize the Jewish community” of Pueblo, a city of 112,000 residents about 100 miles south of Denver.

“It is one of the most vulgar… evil crimes that can be committed against an entire group of people,” Moore said while imposing the sentence sought by prosecutors.

Holzer declined to speak at the hearing.

The defendant pleaded guilty in October to one count of trying to obstruct religious services by force, and one count of attempting to destroy a building used in interstate commerce, according to his plea agreement.
Man Arrested for Shouting Antisemitic Abuse at Soldier Guarding French Synagogue
A man has been sentenced by a French court for verbally abusing soldiers standing on guard outside a synagogue in the south-western town of Bordeaux with antisemitic abuse.

The incident occurred last Friday. Soldiers on guard outside the synagogue on rue du Grand-Rabbin-Joseph-Cohen were approached by a man on a bicycle. He approached the soldiers shouting antisemitic slurs as well as threats of death, before fleeing the scene.

Identified by the police from security camera footage, the man was taken into custody over the weekend and made his first court appearance on Tuesday.

Recently-published data showed that in 2020, the number of violent antisemitic assaults on Jews in France remained consistent despite the restrictions on movement imposed by COVID-19 lockdowns.

According to annual data compiled by SPCJ, the French Jewish community’s voluntary security agency, “the number of violent attacks recorded — 44 — remained almost identical to the year 2019 — 45 — despite the three and a half months of confinement and the decrease in community activities.” However, the overall number of antisemitic acts recorded in 2020 was down by more than half, the SPCJ noted.

A total of 339 antisemitic incidents were recorded, compared with 687 in 2019 and 541 in 2018.
Bulgarian game show host quotes anti-Semitic rant by chess master Bobby Fischer
The host of a popular game show on Bulgarian public TV quoted on air the anti-Semitic rantings of the late chess master Bobby Fischer, then apologized the following day, a day after the broadcasting company’s top official.

On Tuesday, Orlin Goranov of Bulgarian National Television’s “The Last One Wins” posed a question to contestants on “who was the chess player with Jewish roots who nonetheless spoke out harshly against Jews?”

Goranov then read an article published on the white supremacist website JBCampbellExtremismOnline.com in which the author purported to have interviewed Fischer saying “The Jews don’t like to work. That’s one of the things the Jews didn’t like about Hitler’s concentration camps,” and that “there were no gas chambers. That’s all baloney.”

The authenticity of the quote is unconfirmed but Fischer, a former world champion who died in 2008, had a rich record of making anti-Semitic statements though his mother was Jewish.

In one radio interview in the Philippines, he called Jews a “filthy, lying bastard people” attempting world domination through instrumentalizing the Holocaust, which he called “a money-making invention.”

Goranov apologized on air Wednesday.


Jewish Indian women elders spearhead revival of Purim musical tradition
This year, COVID-19 competes with Haman as the villain of the Jewish holiday of Purim for India’s Bene Israel “kirtankars.” The kirtankars, a group of elderly women from the Mumbai Jewish community who sing kirtan, or traditional devotional songs, had planned to perform a kirtan about Queen Esther in the synagogue for the holiday. But with places of worship mostly closed due to the pandemic, the women’s performance has been canceled.

Kirtans are traditional storytelling songs inspired by Hindu devotional music. The ones sung by the Bene Israel are in the local Marathi language and include Hebrew words. They extol great figures of the Hebrew Bible, such as Joseph, Moses, David and Elijah. The one the women had hoped to perform this week is called “Esther Ranichi Katha” or the tale of Queen Esther who saved the Jews.

“There’s been a spike in Covid cases, so religious worship has been restricted. We will probably have five to ten people — not even a minyan [prayer quorum] — at the synagogue. And it isn’t safe for the women, who are mostly in their 70s and 80s, to leave their homes to travel,” said Elijah Jacob, former Joint Distribution Committee director in India.

“It’s a shame because they were so excited to do their recital,” he said of the kirtankars, or kirtan singers.

Jacob has been active in recent years in working with the women to preserve and perform the kirtans of the Bene Israel community, which were popular from the 1880s until the 1940s. Local interest in them waned considerably after the majority of Bene Israel Jews emigrated to Israel or Commonwealth countries after Israel and India gained independence.



Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)

EoZTV Podcast

Powered by Blogger.

follow me

search eoz

Recent posts from other blogs

subscribe via email

comments

Contact

translate

E-Book

source materials

reference sites

multimedia

source materials for Jewish learning

great places to give money

media watch

humor

.

Source materials

Sample Text

EoZ's Most Popular Posts Ever

follow me

Followers


pages

Random Posts

Pages - Menu

Elder of Ziyon - حـكـيـم صـهـيـون

Elder of Ziyon - حـكـيـم صـهـيـون

Donate!

Tweets

EoZ Videos

On YouTube
EoZNews channel
On Liveleak

Compliments

Monthly subscription:
Subscription options

One time donation:

Interesting Blogs

Categories

Best posts of 2016

Blog Archive

compliments

Algemeiner: "Fiercely intelligent and erudite"

Omri: "Elder is one of the best established and most respected members of the jblogosphere..."
Atheist Jew:"Elder of Ziyon probably had the greatest impression on me..."
Soccer Dad: "He undertakes the important task of making sure that his readers learn from history."
AbbaGav: "A truly exceptional blog..."
Judeopundit: "[A] venerable blog-pioneer and beloved patriarchal figure...his blog is indispensable."
Oleh Musings: "The most comprehensive Zionist blog I have seen."
Carl in Jerusalem: "...probably the most under-recognized blog in the JBlogsphere as far as I am concerned."
Aussie Dave: "King of the auto-translation."
The Israel Situation:The Elder manages to write so many great, investigative posts that I am often looking to him for important news on the PalArab (his term for Palestinian Arab) side of things."
Tikun Olam: "Either you are carelessly ignorant or a willful liar and distorter of the truth. Either way, it makes you one mean SOB."
Mondoweiss commenter: "For virulent pro-Zionism (and plain straightforward lies of course) there is nothing much to beat it."
Didi Remez: "Leading wingnut"
Copyright © EoZ | Powered by Blogger
Blogger Templates